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Memorial Service
JOHN ALBERT MORSELL
April 14, 1912 August 19, 1974
ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

[[image - black & white photograph of John Albert Morsell]]

[[images - three black & white photographs of scenes at the Funeral Service]]

JOHN A. MORSELL joined the NAACP staff in February, 1956, as Assistant to the Executive Secretary. In 1964, he assumed the newly-created title of
Assistant Executive Director. Since 1965, he has, among other duties, been responsible for general administration supervision of the NAACP Special Contribution Fund, with the title of Assistant Secretary.

Prior to NAACP, Mr. Morsell spent ten years in sociological research. For the five years immediately previous, he was a study director for International Research Associates, Inc., and for five years before that he held a similar position at the Bureau of Applied Social Research of Columbia University. He undertook research assignments during those years in Europe, Latin America, and the Far East.

Mr. Morsell also served (1935-1936) as a research staff member of the Mayor's Commission on Conditions in Harlem and as a member (1951) of a field team which investigated the effects of racial integration in the U.S. Army. He is the author of more than forty published articles, chiefly on aspects of civil rights, but including topics in epidemiology, public health, education, and political behavior.

A cum laude graduate of the City College of New York (1934), Mr. Morsell received an M.A. in 1938 and a Ph.D. in 1951 from Columbia University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1912, Mr. Morsell received his elementary and high school education in that city. In 1937 he married a former high school classmate, Marjorie Poole. Their one child, Frederick Albert, was born in 1940.

Mr. Morsell was a Fellow of the American Sociological Association and a member of the Eastern Sociological Society and the American Association for Public Opinion Research. He served for two years (1968-70) as Chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the New York City Housing and Development Administration. In September, 1970, he was appointed to a six-year term as a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, which governs the 21 colleges and other units of the City University system.

Surviving are his widow, the former Marjorie Poole; a son, Frederick Albert, and a sister, Mrs. Justine McLaurin of Washington.